HC Deb 04 May 1860 vol 158 cc706-14
MR. JOSEPH LOCKE

said, he rose to put the question of which he had given notice, relative to the purification of the Serpentine. He might remind the House that last year a number of schemes for the purification of the Serpentine were not only brought before the House, but were discussed by the public prints. One plan was brought forward by the late lamented First Commissioner of Works, and was strongly recommended by him on the ground that for a sum of £17,000 the purification of the Serpentine could be effected. That scheme, however, met with very considerable opposition upon the Ministerial side of the House, and from none more than from his hon. Friends the Members for Westminster and Coventry. At the same time, that plan had the recommendation of his hon. Friend (Sir S. M. Peto) and his ever-to-be-lamented friend the late Robert Stephenson. Notwithstanding that recommendation, a discussion and a division took place, when the scheme of Mr. FitzRoy was adopted by a largo majority. After the death of Mr. FitzRoy, however, when the works were in operation, when the plans were being carried out and all the contracts were made, the question was again agitated, and the right hon. Gentleman who so worthily occupied the post of First Commissioner of Works was induced to take a different view, and consent to the reopening of the matter. Another Committee was appointed to reconsider the best mode of purifying the Serpentine, and their Report now lay on the table. That Report recommended the abandonment of the scheme which the House had already sanctioned last year, although it was fair to state that in some cases the Resolutions of the Committee were only affirmed by a small majority. In some instances, indeed, the Resolutions were only carried by the casting voice of the First Commissioner, and the House must, therefore, not be led to suppose that there was anything like unanimity in the vote to which the Committee had come. He was prepared to contend, indeed, that their recommendation ought to carry no weight at all, and he would state the grounds upon which he had formed that opinion. The Committee recommended the House to abandon works which had been carried out up to this time at an outlay of £14,000 out of a total expenditure of £17,000. The hon. Baronet (Sir J. Shelley) said he did not believe that £14,000 had been expended, and he had moved for a Return of the sums paid to the contractor, in which he found that only £5,000 had been actually paid. From that he assumed that £5,000 was all the loss the country would sustain from the abandonment of Mr. Hawksley's scheme. But that very Return showed that there remained a sum of £11,850 out of the Vote of £17,000 applicable to the settlement of accounts not yet rendered, and for which the work was now in progress. Those accounts not delivered made up the difference be- tween the £5,000 and the £14,000. There were also other unpaid items that did not appear in the Return, and among them the cost of the steam-engine, which had been executed, but was not yet put up. The Return was therefore of no value whatever as a criterion of the loss that would be entailed on the country from the abandonment of the scheme. What course did the Chief Commissioner of Works intend to adopt? One Minister last year submitted a scheme involving an outlay of £17,000, which that House deliberately sanctioned; and no sooner had £14,000 been spent upon it than another head of the same department came forward, at the instigation of the indefatigable Member for Westminster, and wholly upset the arrangement. Whatever might be the opinion of that House on the subject, if the public money was to be squandered in that fashion, people out of doors would conclude that those in whoso hands such business was placed were incompetent to discharge their duty. He would conclude by asking the First Commissioner of Works, what steps he has taken, or is about to take, in regard to the Report of the Committee on the purification of the Serpentine?

MR. BENTINCK

said, he could not but think that the time had come when the House should open its eyes a little more to cases of this nature. This was a specimen of the mode of Metropolitan jobs which were to be paid for out of the public purse; and the result was that there had been £14,000 fooled away for nothing. The question was not so much who was to blame in this affair as whether the House should continue to sanction such demands as this upon the public purse. It was an expenditure which should have been defrayed out of a Metropolitan rate, and he could only designate the transaction as a wilful plunder of the pockets of the people at large. He hoped that the House would in future refuse any applications for public money to be applied to purely local Metropolitan objects.

MR. COWPER

said, the best mode of purifying the Serpentine bad been under consideration for a good many years. Last year a plan for effecting it, altogether novel in its nature, was brought forward, which by its ingenuity captivated many persons. It had been generally supposed that what it was necessary to do with the Serpentine was to clear out the filth and pour in fresh water. The new plan was, instead of clearing the bottom of the lake and adding fresh water, to pass the water through a series of filters. When he came to consider that project officially he shared the prevailing opinion among professional men and the public at large, that, however ingenious it might be, the plan of last year would not prove satisfactory. Still, the scheme having been stated to the House when the Vote was granted, he thought it respectful to the House that before any alteration was made in it they should have an opportunity of reconsidering the objections to the scheme, and the best mode of doing so was by a Select Committee. A Select Committee was appointed and fairly constituted; and, although their Report was very far from unanimous, yet they recommended, a3 the right mode of dealing with the Serpentine, that the foulness at the bottom of the lake should be got rid of, and a clear and hard bed substituted for it. They further reported that it was desirable to abandon the process of filtration, and seek the best available supply of fresh water to fill the lake. He had acted upon both of those recommendations. He, in the first place, bad consulted Mr. Simpson with respect to the removal of the special source of foulness and the seeming a sufficient supply of pure water. He bad selected Mr. Simpson not only for his eminence in his profession as a hydraulic engineer, but because his long experience and special acquaintance with the Serpentine and the parts contiguous gave him a more intimate knowledge of the subject than any one else possessed. He next considered how the works already executed or contracted for might be turned to the best account, and how the sum voted last year might still be most usefully and economically employed. The plan of filtration had this great defect—that, instead of reaching the origin of the mischief, it tended to cure only one of the symptoms. It could not be successful, because the water when filtered would be liable to become as bad as ever, it being well known that the vegetable growth which Mr. Hawksley sought to remove returned after filtration with redoubled activity. In its anxiety for economy, the House had been led to adopt a scheme which would in the end prove the more costly. He had, therefore, announced to Mr. Hawksley that the system of filtration must be abandoned, and had asked that gentleman's opinion as to the possibility of obtaining a sufficient supply of pure water from a deep well in the vicinity of the head of the lake. Mr. Hawksley re- ported that they might procure a daily supply of half a million gallons of a very pure description from a well sunk in the tertiary and chalk formation. If the money intended for providing a filtering medium was devoted to the sinking of a well instead, they would attain the object they desired of having a pure lake, without the necessity of removing the work already completed. The engine that was to have been used in carrying out the filtration would hereafter be employed in pumping the water out of the well. It would also draw the water from the bottom of the Serpentine through the conduit to the top, to the extent of perhaps 2,000,000 gallons a day, thus establishing the most desirable thing of all—a perpetual current from one end of the lake to the other. Motion was more likely to secure the purity of the water than any chemical process; and a perpetual current would prevent the vegetable growth which had been so much complained of. The engine would at the same time provide a large cascade, and throw the water up a considerable height. Hon. Gentlemen opposite who objected so much to ornament should remember that this would tend to aerate the water and thereby make it purer. There would be likewise a very ornamental arrangement at the head of the like. When, therefore, the removal of the mud was effected they would, he believed, have a lake of water in a condition that would give rise to no further complaint. He might also mention that they would have a jet of water in the centre of the basin in front of Kensington Gardens. He was glad to be able to relieve hon. Members from the apprehension that the money which had been already expended on the Serpentine would he entirely wasted. By the modifications which he intended to introduce into the plan the outlay which had taken place would be turned to a satisfactory account. In reply to the observation that Metropolitan works of this kind ought to be paid for out of local rates, he need only say that hitherto these Parks had always been considered Royal Parks, and their maintenance, consequently, a proper application of the national money. These parks were not exclusively enjoyed by the inhabitants of London. They were Metropolitan, in the sense that they belonged to the Metropolis of the United Kingdom. He believed every Englishman to be proud of his Metropolis; and, although he was sorry to say he did not think it was quite worthy of the nation in many respects, he hoped the constituents of the hon. Member for Norfolk would not grudge aiding to make it somewhat more so.

SIR JOHN SHELLEY

said, he would beg to remind his hon. Friend (Mr. Joseph Locke) that it was by no fault of his that the money had been, to use the phrase of the hon. Member, fooled away. He did his best to persuade the House that the filtration scheme was purely visionary, and he had even divided against his late lamented Friend, Mr. FitzRoy, on the question. His hon. Friend, who had asked the question, said the House decided by a large majority; but the fact was, that the plan never was before the House. There were only two Members who knew any thing about it—the hon. Baronet the Member for Finsbury, and the late Mr. Robert Stephenson; and, however Mr. Stephenson's opinion might be deferred to upon other questions, yet upon that subject it became of somewhat less value, owing to his own statement that he never was able to ascertain whether anything was the matter with the Serpentine at all. The Chief Commissioner of Works had stated how evenly the Committee were divided; but he (Sir John Shelley) believed that if it had not been for the bold assertion of Mr. Hawksley himself that £14,000 had been actually expended, there would lave been no difficulty in getting the Committee to take the course which they ultimately did take, and which he humbly thought had met with unanimous approval out of doors. Probably he should be told he had no right to give an opinion in opposition to Mr. Hawksley; but, having ventured once before to do so, and having found that he was not so far wrong, he would now say that he thought his right hon. Friend was likely to be misled by Mr. Hawksley in what he was going to carry out. He understood from the right hon. Gentleman that the plan which was now to be adopted, was to dig a well at the head of the Serpentine into the chalk-pit; but from inquiries which he (Sir John Shelley) had made, he believed that plan would be a failure. He would quote Mr. Hawksley against himself on this matter. He (Sir John Shelley) had asked Mr. Hawksley whether he thought that any scheme for obtaining a supply of fresh water was possible; and his answer wa9, "As to possibility, I will not say; for it is possible that you may go to the higher region of the Thames, or to the lower region of the Colne, and get a fresh supply; but within the ordinary limits of expense, it is quite impossible. You might get water to a limited extent by sinking a well, but to only a very limited extent; and the expense would be great in proportion to the quantity of water obtained." Looking at the matter in a pounds, shillings, and pence view, he believed it would be foolish to go to the expense of digging a well at the upper end of the Serpentine, when they had already one in Duck Island, capable of supplying as much water as could reasonably be required. He had also a great objection to putting up a kind of pagoda at the end of the Serpentine, in which the chimney and the engine were to be; and, unless great care was taken, and great taste shown, it would end in having a sort of tea-garden and summer-house there, very unworthy of the position in which they were placed. With regard to the question of public money being spent on the parks, he felt satisfied that if the House would give the Metropolis power to manage its own affairs, it would be perfectly ready to take charge of the parks.

MR. BLACKBURN

said, that as one of the Committee which had sat on this subject, the fact was that the £17,000 had been voted by the House for purifying the Serpentine by filtration, and, though most of the money had been spent, there was nothing for it but a well and a pump. The right hon. Gentleman was by no means clear as to the figures, for he had not "condescended to particulars." He had not told the House whether the money which had been voted would cover all the expense of the new plan, or whether a further sum would be required; but they had got this distinctly, that the sum voted for filtering the water was not to be applied to that purpose. He quite agreed with the hon. Member for Norfolk in looking with great suspicion on the theory that the whole country was to be taxed for the beautifying of the Metropolis. It was an extraordinary deduction from the meaning of the word "Metropolis," to infer that, because it meant a city in the centre, all the rest of the country was to pay its expenses. Let them make the Serpentine wholesome if it were unwholesome, although he had no reason to suppose it was from any evidence brought out; but he objected to the country being called on to provide a skating and swimming place for the Metropolis.

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON

said, he wished to say a word in vindication of his late friend, Mr. FitzRoy. The ground upon which that Gentleman adopted the plan of filtration was this. The plan first suggested was to deal with the Serpentine in the same manner as the lake in St. James's Park, to drain off the water and expose the bottom, which was then, by the application of lime and by other processes, to be hardened and made of an uniform depth. The expense which that operation would entail was calculated at something like £60,000. Mr. FizRoy, however, was led to believe that the scheme of filtration would so far accomplish the end in view, as to put the water of the Serpentine in a sufficient state of purity, while it would cost only £16,000. Placing confidence in the opinion of Mr. Hawksley and men of skill in matters of that sort, he therefore chose the scheme which involved the smaller outlay.

LORD JOHN MANNERS

said, he would beg to put the noble Lord right. He stated that the expense of the scheme which had been proposed by the late Government for purifying the Serpentine was between £50,000 and £60,000, but it was only £32,000 instead of £60,000. The question which the present Government had to consider was, whether the Serpentine should be put into a satisfactory condition by the scheme, which on the part of the late Government be had submitted to Parliament, or whether they should adopt the new-fangled and extraordinary one of filtration which was found when it came to be examined by the Select Committee to be one that would not really hold water; and the moral he would draw from the very unsatisfactory state of affairs in relation to the Serpentine was this—that a new Government on coming into office should not be in such a violent hurry to alter plans simply because they had been sanctioned by their predecessors. At all events, they ought to be guided by something like common sense, and have some better justification for their conduct than bad been adduced on this occasion. The Government of the noble Lord was a great sinner in this respect; and great public inconvenience and waste of public money must be the result of such a system. In the present instance some £10,000 or £12,000 had been expended on works which the Committee proposed to stop; that money was more or less wasted, and, in all probability, the thing would end in the adoption of some scheme like that adopted by the late Government, which had been abandoned without notice to any party on some hasty intimation given at 4 o'clock at a morning sitting. He had not the slightest notion of the grounds on which the noble Lord chose to subvert the plans and arrangements sanctioned by the late Government.

Motion agreed to.

House at rising to adjourn till Monday next.